The one ton swap thread (2 Viewers)

[cody c]

Edit: links below to portions of swap/build

I swapped in one ton axles (complete, as any project goes), the cruiser already had the cummins motor in it.


Previous build threads:

Alternator swap with vac pump: Isuzu NPR alternator vacuum ports - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/isuzu-npr-alternator-vacuum-ports.406686/page-3

Roof rack build: ultra low roof rack - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/ultra-low-roof-rack.968557/

Previous vehicle mods: Builds - Cody's slow white 80 (re)build - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/codys-slow-white-80-re-build.407556/

Index to specific parts of build:

page 1:
part #'s for axles
axle pics, truss
wheel clearance steering factory
front axle D60 cut up
home built pinion flange adapter
bead locks before powder coat

page 2:
steering parts
redrilled ford rotors (8x6.5)
bead lock rings
airbag mounts
transfer case output flange drilled
adventure vehicles NW adapter
lower links lengthened/beefed
wheels sandblasted

page 3:
wheels powder coated
rubber mounted
fender trimming starts

page 4:
brake cylinder conversation pics

page 5:
Brake mods
4" exhaust started
fender patching
dual filler neck
axles welded
NV4500 cover mods
diff cover fill port raised
knuckles machined high steer
crossemember built
upper wishbone suspension link for rear
airbag system

page 6:
high/low shifter bracket
high steer
aux fuel tank
bbq smoker sidetrack
shock pins and towers started

page 7:
shock towers welded
shock pins (lower)
airbags mounted
toyota jack mod
winch mods
under engine crossmember piece
freespool clutch (winch) pieces
exhaust work
diff cover mod
airbag paddle valves mounted
center console work, shift boots
first drive

page 8:
hydro ram assist steering
clutch throw out and pilot bearing replacement
new wheels
new tires

(Old text):
Trying to create a thread specific to one ton swaps.

There is a few owners with heavier axles swapped into their 80's, and it’s about finicky to hunt for info related to swaps and there are some common questions and issues.

If those who have swapped in heavier axles could post some pics of their axles swapped in, what obstacles they had to navigate, components (i.e. truss, rod ends, steering parts etc) that would be great.


Mine starts with a SD dana 60 off a 2005 Ford F-250, and a 14 bolt off a 2005 GM. The front unit bearing and brake disc have been redrilled to match the chey pattern. The unit bearing was also put on the lathe as the center bore is larger on the ford slightly.

basic plan is high steer arms, swap driver and passenger side to work with Toyota tcase. Reuse radius arms but replace bracket on frame to move bolt down 2” and forward 2-3”

rear will get the artec truss, lengthened lower links, upper replaced with wishbone link to center of truss/axle. Rear to be moved back 2.5” approximately.

going to 42” iroks on widened beadlocked 17’s. Edit: also 40x15.5R20 patriot tires

 

[cody c]

Axle: 2005-2010 D60

***

Axle Specs

-Tubes: 3.75" OD, 1/2" wall

-WMS to WMS: 72"

-3 degrees caster factory, users recommend 3.5-3.7 ideal



-Ring Gear: 9.75" (a 10" can be sourced from Ford in limited ratios)

-Lug Pattern: 8x170

-Wheel Studs: M14x1.50

-Axle shafts: 35 spline

-U-joints: 1450



14 Bolt

WMS 68”



80 series

WMS is 62.25 inches front axle



WMS is 62.2 rear axle





D60 parts info



Part numbers for axle parts (not an inclusive list)

Ball Joint Upper

-Moog/XRF - K80026

-Ford - 5C3Z-3049-AB (MCSOE-67) + Nut - F2TZ-3A049-A



Ball Joint Lower

-Moog/XRF - K8607T

-Ford - 8C3Z-3050-C (MCSOE-51) + Nut - F2TZ-3A050-A + Snap Ring - EOTZ-3K050-B



Updated Dust Shield

-Ford - AC3Z-1S175-A (BRS-170)

-Spicer - SS 53877



Axle Seal

-Ford - 5C3Z-3254-AA

-Spicer - SS 2017426 (55474 old#)



AutoLock Hub O-Ring kit (not needed since vacuum system won't be used)

-Ford - 5C3Z-1K106-AB (complete kit with 2 o-rings, gasket, screws)



Yellow Hub/Knuckle O-ring

-Ford - 5C3Z-4A322-AA

-Dana/Spicer - 54983



U-Joint

Spicer - SPL55-3X

Spicer Greaseable - SPL55-4X

 

[cody c]

So, these things really are a few bucks to get together, I think I spent over $1500 this past week and that doesn’t include any labour costs. The thing is you quickly get “scope creep” on projects like this. For example, you might as well go with high steer when you do the swap. If you do high steer, your pulling the knuckles, if your pulling knuckles you gotta pull axles shafts (which you remove anyway for a passenger/driver side swap) then you might as well do U joints while they’re out. And axle seals, and ball joints since you need to press out the upper ball joints to mill the knuckles might as well replace those... Next thing you know your replacing brake components, cleaning up old rusted knuckles and using a durable paint or powder coating. I’m reusing front radius arms and lower arms so might as well replace all bushings as well.

anyway, point is, i see that if you really wanna keep the costs minimal, you have to ignore the maintenance that should be done till after the swap is complete and you’ve driven it a short bit. The costs of new wheels and tires, axle truss, and metal for brackets, brake lines etc already adds up quick.

Anyone wanting to do this in a budget will have to get in the habit of ignoring worn parts till they have budget, scope creep is significant with this type of project...

cleaned up knuckles with wire wheel, then muriatic acid, cut off steering arm as I’m going to high steer.

found someone local to mill knuckles and broach (respline) long side axle shaft. Will post links to everything later.

could definitely use some info though, anyone use a disc brake 14 bolt axle and have any feedback about driveshaft angle for the basically centered pinion???

 

[cody c]

17” wheels, they are actually dodge wheels which use a slightly bigger hub bore. Had aluminum rings ordered so wheel bore sits against them.

I believe they are 35 metric bolts, wheels were widened 2”, I drew up the beadlocks design and gotta buddy to burn them together, he is a professional welder and has access to some pretty cool machines to burn them. Ordered 3/8 aluminum outlets today.

Something really cool about widening wheels, I’m some sort of elitist now, hah. Put a unit bearing in the vise to spin the wheel on, use a dial indicator to get alignment right, then tack weld and add the next piece. Gonna get them run on a wheel balancer and try and balance them by welding a bit to them before powder coat. I believe the beadlocks were about 10 thousands or less within true. We will see how they work.

superduty calipers next to V6 4Runner calipers, you cant really tell from the pictures but the Ford calipers just seem huge in comparison. Should help with the heavier wheels and 42” iroks.

brake calipers, knuckles and wheels are getting powder coated

u joint saddles were ground down and lathed flat, I have flanges off a cruiser flange that was cut up to act as a middle adapter (the pinion nut can’t come off otherwise as the center bore is too small) and drilled them again for the cruiser driveshaft bolts.

14B takes 5/16-24 bolts, D60 takes M7 x 1.0 bolts on pinion saddle/flange

 

[slow95z]

so i am going to go ahead and just post this so we can get it out of the way, flame me all you want.

if you have a 6BT, 1 ton axles and a manual trans................... why didnt you just buy a dodge truck to start with ??

 

[Wrencher93]

so i am going to go ahead and just post this so we can get it out of the way, flame me all you want.

if you have a 6BT, 1 ton axles and a manual trans................... why didnt you just buy a dodge truck to start with ??

Wheel base and function of an SUV?

 

[cruisermatt]

so you are leaving the 14B full width? You're still running the FJ60 splitcase, right?
I still really like the way you machined the yokes to work with Toyota shafts. That is a neat idea

 

[Rwhat]

so i am going to go ahead and just post this so we can get it out of the way, flame me all you want.

if you have a 6BT, 1 ton axles and a manual trans................... why didnt you just buy a dodge truck to start with ??

So you can look cool as hell in a land cruiser.

 

[leonard_nemoy]

so i am going to go ahead and just post this so we can get it out of the way, flame me all you want.

if you have a 6BT, 1 ton axles and a manual trans................... why didnt you just buy a dodge truck to start with ??

Sounds to me like he is taking everything good off a dodge truck and leaving the rest for the junkyard. Dodge diesel trucks are the most reliable unreliable diesel trucks. They can go for 300,000 + miles on the original drivetrain but the window motors, door locks, and basically any other non drivetrain parts will have to be replaced 4 times. In my neck of the woods diesel pickup trucks are big business. The ultimate diesel truck out here is the Fodge. A dodge drivetrain transplanted into a Ford truck.

 

[cody c]

so i am going to go ahead and just post this so we can get it out of the way, flame me all you want.

if you have a 6BT, 1 ton axles and a manual trans................... why didnt you just buy a dodge truck to start with ??

Fair question. Easy answer is “because 3FE” haha.

I bought the cruiser with the 6BT, previously I had a 3FE in another one and it was nothing but poor mileage and maintenance.

The 80 in stock form is a capable beast, but with the extra weight and oversized tires gets hard on the driveline. When I had 35’s it was non issue, but 35’s are a gateway tire. They were followed by 37” nittos and then 38” geolanders. After a couple broken pinions and some birfs at inopportune times, I realized the axles just aren’t reliable enough for winter wheeling (-25 and 2 hour drive from beaten paths) or hunting trips in somewhat remote terrain.

There is a cross roads where you either replace worn parts like a bandaid, or fix the issue more permanently. I’m going to 42’s now, even with a 1FZ the stock axles or even chromoly parts are kind of beyond capacity at that point and in the realm of stronger axles regardless.

No flaming necessary, it’s a reasonable question, but moderation has not really been my card.

Edit: also the wheeling in the NW tends to be narrow trails through either Muskegy mud or rocky slopes, with many bumpy long rocky river beds roads that’ll shake your teeth out.

A cummins truck is too rigid, too long too wide. In my opinion something like a mini truck or 4Runner with soft suspension built to handle very long rough roads at speed is better for trails. The airbags on mine have been quite nice for riverbed rocks.

 

[cody c]

so you are leaving the 14B full width? You're still running the FJ60 splitcase, right?
I still really like the way you machined the yokes to work with Toyota shafts. That is a neat idea

Yes to full width. Getting rid of the split case for a full time case. The trans needs a rebuild anyways and have the jonesy’s parts coming. Willing to sell split case and AA adapter later if intrested.

Full width 14 bolt yes. The dodge wheels have more backspacing. The width should be more when finished, but the distance between the inside of tires only an inch or two more (wider wheels and tires, 62.2 WMS in back with 2” spacers 4.5” BS wheels compared to 68” WMS with 6” BS wheels). I may even need 1/2” spacers in the back if my numbers aren’t out to lunch too much.

 

[I Lean]

Maybe dumb question....but do your wheels fit on the front axle? I'm asking because I have 18" rims on my 100, and they just barely clear the steering arm/tie rod end of my 99-04 Super Duty knuckles with fairly deep backspaced wheels. I couldn't fit 17's if they had the same offset.

 

[cody c]

Maybe dumb question....but do your wheels fit on the front axle? I'm asking because I have 18" rims on my 100, and they just barely clear the steering arm/tie rod end of my 99-04 Super Duty knuckles with fairly deep backspaced wheels. I couldn't fit 17's if they had the same offset.

I don’t have the high steer arms yet, I guess I’ll find out!

The tires I have came off a superduty with 17” alloy wheels.

 

[I Lean]

I don't have high steer arms either...but you don't appear to have any steering arm at all. Where are they on the '05+ knuckle?

This is the close spot I was thinking of:

 

[cody c]

Already ground the one off. They might be ok, if not I might get away with something like 1/2” or 3/4” wheel spacers if they make them. I believe mine are off a 2005. Your arms are in a different location

Also the tie rod hangs off the bottom side of these knuckles, the drag link runs to the top side of the passenger link, one long stud that passes through as part of the drag link and the tie rod shares the stud and slides upwards to attach to it

 

[cody c]

Lopped off the inner knuckle on the short side, cleaned up the tube and marked /started cutting tube off for the new short side.

The axle tube is pressed in the inner knuckle, I couldn’t press it out with my 20 ton press so I have to cut some slots in it to press it out, ran out of sawzall blades and hard to cut with a grinder, but I should be able to get it out today.

I will probably have to take some metal off the new short side so be able to press/hammer the inner C on before welding. Long side will get an piece of pipe on the inside to span the two pieces of pipe to strengthen it, the fella welding has access to an alignment jig, which is a long piece of chromoly shaft and two discs which clamp in the diff saddles so the rod can see that things are straight before final welding.

The bottom side of the diff housing, I smoothed it up a bit with the grinder, this has taken a lot of time with a grinder already, I kind of wonder if Im mad for doing this but its getting close to sending off to Corey the welders place for him to put things back together.


I made this "axle saddle stand" out of some left over treated 2x6 or 2x8 lumber. I would recommend taking the time to do this if you ever build an axle. You end up rolling or turning it so many times, and it didnt spin so easily on jack stands. Once you have round tube it rolls pretty well.


Edit: picked up the 3/8” aluminum outers today:

 

[cody c]

Was just going to edit and add pictures but it says a max 5 pics per post.

Drilled to countersink the beadlocks, need to take a router and round the inner edge for tire bead. Also got the pipe out of the inner knuckle, it was in there good

 

[bwakeling]

so you are swapping a driver drop dana 60 to a passenger drop? Curious how that works out. Have you figured out what driveshafts you are going to do? Dirt Lifestyle on you tube did that swap on a Rover and seemed ok.

 

[cody c]

Yes, driver to passenger swap. I’ll have more details on the exact process but essentially that’s what’s going here.

So for driveshafts, I’ve taken a grinder to the pinion flanges, then put them on a lathe to spin them flat. I’ve taken Toyota pinion flanges and cut the flanges off. These will use the Toyota flanges as an adapter.

For those not in the know, the Toyota pinion flange has a center hole that is used to align the Toyota driveshaft which has a round cylinder to align the shaft within the pinion. The opening on the Toyota flange is too small to get a socket through for the one ton pinion nuts, so they kinda have to be two piece to both align the Toyota shaft and to be able to bolt the pinion flange on.

I’ve been on the fence about using DC shafts, because I have airbags my ride is a bit more inconsistent and I think a non DC shaft is probably better front and back. I’m not 100% on best pinion angle, but I’m thinking just a couple degrees up or close to match the output on the t-case. Been trying to get more first hand info but I haven’t found any good resources to that end.

Edit, going stock shaft in the back, DC in the front..

Also, I’m going to have the frame bracket for the radius arms moved forward and down a couple inches, because of the longer pinions on the heavier axles the DS length may be acceptable without modification, but a bit early to know for sure. I don’t have any binding issues with driveline know at full height,

New TRE’s in the mail for the ford stuff, beefy! Makes the 80 TRE’s look like kiddy toys. It’s an added benefit to the upgrades for sure. I find it interesting the upgrades in strength also go with braking, and steering as well as lug studs etc, if you compare just the project value for strength to a heavily upgraded set of 80 axles with chromoly parts, trusses, internals etc, the costs may not be that far off of one ton swap. Not including wheels or tires or labor I’ll be into these for I think $3k give or take for the set of axles with almost all new parts on the front axle, truss on the rear etc.

 

[matzell]

High Angle driveline can hook you up with the proper Toyota flanges for most axles.